ON THE XY GENERATION, RESEARCH AND SIMULATOR IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE INAUGURAL SEASON:

Just in case, I'm laying this out now:

When concerning mechanic changes: we have to use what the sim has available at the time. If it becomes known that a mechanic such as how something is calculated (an example could be how much Sheer Force actually boosts moves by (it hasn't changed afaik but for example's sake)), but it has not yet been reflected on the sim that the mechanic has changed, we have to go with what the sim has available at the time of the battle. There will be no retroactive decisions made if research comes to light that something has changed after the fact.

When concerning known illegalities: XY has "fixed" most illegalities concerning movepools (Sleep Powder + Spikes Roserade being an example, Aqua Jet + Belly Drum Azumarill another), but if certain illegalities arise that are known, they will not be allowed for use in battle. If you are playing an XY metagame and are caught using a known illegality that is preventable, your battle will be forfeit and your opponent will be deemed the winner. If they become known after the fact, battles will not be replayed.
-- This includes using the correct shiny-ness, nature, EVs, and IVs of special event Pokemon such as Extreme Speed Genesect and Weather Ball Raikou, etc. Depending on the capabilities of the simulator, everything should match precisely.

I know these two points kind of contradict themselves, but if it's something we can prevent, I want us to prevent it and try playing as close to the cartridge as possible. We have precedent with this when it was possible to play with Spikes + Sleep Powder Roserade on the sim in BW. Just because you could play with it, didn't mean it was legal and you would be disqualified if you were caught using it. It is on the onus of the players to be up to date on the preventable illegalities for XY. Once the week is done though, no decision can be overturned.

I will keep this thread open for clarifications and other input. We are entering completely new ground when it comes to XY in a lot of ways, so I'm going to be cautious with this lol.

WARNING: DO NOT ANSWER IN THIS THREAD. WHOEVER DOES WILL GET HIS POST DELETED AND RISKS A POSSIBLE INFRACTION. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

9 Answers

Welcome one and all to the 1st installment of the DataBase Premier League. 6 teams will be competing in this season to fight it out for fabulous trophy.

The current lineup of teams, with their managing staff, is as follows:

Managers' names are in bold.

Hex
Psusnis◇ (Mike)
Ninja
Lust (Lenub)
Aeternis
JirachiCelebiMew

Just as important to DBPL as the managers are the players. When signing up, a prospective player will write in their application which tier(s) he or she wants play for DBPL. Do NOT put down a tier if you would not seriously consider playing for that tier, not only for your team's sake, but for your own personal sake. The DataBase Premier League has been known for the highest level of competition in each week at each position. I want the best players playing against each other in their best metagames, as I am sure everyone does.

Now one important piece of information that will help the managers decide who to pick: the tiers which will be included in Season 1 of DBPL.

Here is the lineup for Season 1 of the DataBase Premier League!

Obviously, each of the ‘BW’ tiers will be BW2.

XY OU:
XY Uber:
XY UU:
XY DOUBLES:
BW RU:
BW NU:

League Stages

Not all 6 teams will qualify to play in the playoffs. Based on the results of the League stage, the top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs.

In the league stages, beating another team gives you 2 points, drawing the match gives you 1 point, and losing it gives you nothing. In addition, the manner in which you win will also be stored; that is, how many you won vs how many you lost. This difference will be used in case of a tie at the end of the league stage.

Playoffs

Based on the league stage, the top 4 teams will be seeded and placed into a bracket, in which they will go head to head. Teams will battle in the same format as during the league stage. At the end of all 6 battles, the team with more wins will advance to the next round.

In the case of a tie, the advancing team will be decided by a best of three in the three Smogon Tour metagames, namely: XY OU, XY Ubers, and XY UU. Knowing this before the season, it may be beneficial for managers to take the playoff tiebreaker into consideration during the auction.

The Tournament will progress in this format until there is only one team left standing, the champion of the DataBase Premier League.

The General Manager of a team is essentially the boss of a team. The GM is the final word in all decisions (barring the host) regarding his team. The GM decides which players play on the team, who plays in what position, and even handles the team finances. Managers also make sure that the team keeps running on a day to day basis. If a team fails to complete their matches by the end of the allotted time, the onus is on the manager to inform the host as to what happened in order to make sure that proper activity calls are made.

Because of these responsibilities, The General Manager is probably the most important part of the team. As such, the position of GM is not one to be taken lightly.

• General Managers are eligible to play in the DataBase Premier League.

• General Managers are chosen largely on a subjective opinion of the hosts as well as Tournament Directors as to who they believe would be fit for the position. Being fit for the position includes the knowledge of excellent battlers in the community (for fielding a competent team), having above average activity on the forums and IRC (in order to ensure that you don’t abandon your team), as well as possessing a necessary amount of “gravitas” (If you can’t make a player do what you tell them to, such as play an undesirable metagame, you’re not going to make a good manager).

Lastly, the General Manager has the following duties:

• He/she may choose at least one Assistant Manager, but no more than two.
• He/she shall be present at the live auction, or appoint someone to participate in the live auction in their stead.
• He/she shall send the host weekly rosters.
• He/she shall ensure to the best of his/her abilities that his/her battlers complete their matches on time.
• In the event that a match fails to be completed, he/she shall inform the host as to why the match failed to be completed, and what his/her battler did in order to finish the match.
• He/she shall communicate any grievances with the host.
• He/she shall oversee all trades the team makes.

In the weeks preceding the live auction, a time will be chosen by all of the General Managers to meet and perform a live auction in order to choose players. Managers will be expected to remain at the auction for the entire duration, which should take approximately 2-3 hours. If a General Manager cannot, for some reason, find any feasible time that he can attend a Live Auction, then the Assistant Manager will be called upon to fill in the spot. If the Assistant Manager cannot fill the spot, then the second Assistant Manager (if applicable) will fill in the spot. If no Manager can fill the spot for the Live Auction… then a new General Manager + Assistant Manager who can find time to make a live auction will be found to replace the old ones.

Once a time is set, all 6 managers + the hosts will enter a specific channel that will be specified later on SynIRC.net at the given time. The host will administer vops to the 6 managers, and place mode +m on the chat. Spectators are allowed to join in to watch the fun unfold, but will not be able to speak. Discussion on the bidding at hand should be relegated to the server chat.

The host will first ask a team to nominate a player. The order by which teams will nominate players will go in a snaking pattern from the highest ranked team from last year to the lowest ranked team, then the lowest ranked team to the highest ranked team. The host will then tell the details of said player and bidding will commence, starting at 3,000 credits, with the nominating team automatically placing the first bid. The auction will then be in real time. Managers will simply put in their bids in the channel, raising a minimum of 500 credits. If after 15 seconds there are no new bids, the player is sold to the highest bid in the channel. The host will provide a 5 second warning before bidding is closed on a player. The host will then post updated credit totals and will then prompt the next manager in the rotation to nominate a player.

Managers are asked to please have a predetermined list of players you intend to nominate as well as potential bid caps, in order to make the process go as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

It is at this time that the tournament will commence. The league stages consist of a Round Robin tournament. Every team will face every other team once through 9 weeks of play. Each manager will submit to the host a roster no later than the deadline of the previous week. This roster will list the starting players and what metagames they will play. The metagames represented in the DataBase Premier League are as follows:

XY OU:
XY Uber:
XY UU:
XY DOUBLES:
BW RU:
BW NU:

When the week starts, teams' players will face off in their respective metagames / tiers. The XY OU from Team A will face the XY OU from team B, XY UU from Team A will face XY UU from Team B, and so on. Whichever team wins the most battles will be declared the victor for the week. Rather than score based on how many individual battles a team wins, the only thing that matters is who beat the most teams. As such, points are awarded based only on wins and losses versus teams as a whole, not individual players. Beating a team in a week’s matchups is worth two points, tying with a team is worth one point, and losing is worth none, simple as that. At the end of the round robin, the top four teams in the points proceed to the playoffs and will be seeded into a knock-out style bracket where they will face off until only one team remains.

There are a few regulatory things during the league stages that need to be outlined.

Substitutes – At any point in time during the week, a team may make a substitution for an inactive player. In order to do this a manager must PM a host on the forums (or IRC) saying which player is substituting out, and which player is substituting in. A player that has substituted out for a week cannot be substituted back in. In addition, in order to catch any attempts at garnering favorable matchups in XY OU (where the lineup you choose affects pairings), all substitutions are subject to veto by the host if the substitution is suspected to be attempting to “game” the system.

Pre-Week Battling – Because there is a set schedule generated at the beginning of the season, it is possible to accurately guess what players you will be facing in any given week (especially if you play a metagame that isn’t XY OU). However, because the next week’s rosters are not set in stone until the day before the next week, there is no telling what a manager will do with regards to who they slot in one spot… especially if they have more than one player in any given tier. Asking to battle early for future weeks is essentially asking the opposing manager to short themselves options and forces them to make their roster early, perhaps without all of the knowledge they might have gleaned over the course of the week. Due to this, battling early for future weeks is not allowed. Do not ask to battle early for a future week. You will be denied. No exceptions. This is what you have substitutes for.

Trades – Teams may trade players with each other at any point during the regular season. In order to complete a trade, both involved managers must submit a PM to the host detailing which player(s) on their team they are trading away, as well as which players they are receiving as compensation. Trades are finalized at the end of the week they are conducted in. In addition, due to potential conflicts of interest, any players involved in trades must be substituted out of the week they’re involved in a trade. For example, if it’s Week 3 and Mewderator is scheduled to play Ninja, but Mewderator's team wishes to trade Mewderator away for someone new, Mewderator must be substituted out for another player. Mewderator is valid for slotting into the roster of his new team at the beginning of Week 4.

There will be no trades allowed following the conclusion of the midseason pickups.

Trades become finalized with host approval; managers may bring up a trade for veto within 24 hours of the trade being made and the TDs will review the trade and re-finalize or veto the trade.

Activity decisions – There are inevitably times where two players simply fail to complete a match; however, the nature of the tournament system sometimes makes it advantageous to purposely fail to play (such as when a team is up 3-2 in a week). Because of this, it is necessary to make activity decisions on matches. Hosts are required to make thorough investigations regarding each and every potential failed match during a week. If both parties are deemed to be equally apathetic or enthusiastic about getting the match done, but just have not had the opportunity to make it happen, the match will result in a no contest. However, if it is deemed that one party made significantly more effort than the other in attempting to get the match done, then a win will be awarded to that player. Things that will make it very likely that you will lose via activity include: failing to Wall Post your opponent immediately upon the week’s start, scheduling a match and being documented as missing the match time, failing to provide any concrete times for which you can be reached, failing to respond to an opponent’s Wall Post at all. Note that this is a tournament that requires a very high level of activity and diligence, if you don’t think you can get your matches done, quite simply don’t sign up.

Rule Breaking – There is no excuse for breaking any of the predetermined rules. If you are caught breaking a rule, you will lose your match. There is no lenience with regards to this. Break a rule, you lose. Period.

Reversing Rulings - No ruling will be retroactively overturned once the week following the week that the ruling has been made has ended. This includes: activity rulings / rulings based on rule breaking / anything else under the sun. I'm not going back in time to reevaluate every single decision I've made throughout the tournament on Week 9 because you think you were gypped 1-2 wins along the way and now they're the difference between you and a playoff spot. Any appeals to a ruling must be made during the week that the ruling is made; beyond that, all rulings are final once the week ends.

After Week 4, there will be a “break” week for Midseason Free Agent Pickups. Because players are bound to miss the original sign-ups, as well teams are bound to have players that have to leave for a significant portion of the season, in the middle of the season, sign-ups will reopen for 3 days. Players will sign up and a new free agent list will be made. Note: even if you signed up the first time around, you must re-signup in order to get on the midseason free agent list. After sign-ups close, the host will remind each manager how many credits they have left over from the original live auction.

Instead of having another live auction, an auction will take place on the forums. A manager will post their bids, with other managers having up to 24 hours from the time of the post to make a higher bid on the player. After 24 hours, if the manager has not been outbid, his or her team will be awarded the players. The Midseason auction will last for a week, until the start of week 5. There is no use for credits leftover after the midseason free agent pickups, so it is in every manager’s best interest to spend all of their remaining points at this time.

At the end of the league stages, there will be a knockout style playoffs involving the top 4 teams in the points. In the event of a tie in overall points standings, the following criteria is used for breaking ties.

• Overall Points >
• Battle Difference (total # battles won - total # battles lost) >
• Best of 3 - each team picks a unique tier that isn't XY OU with the winner of the Head to Head winner picking first, then XY OU is the 3rd game

After the top 4 have been determined, each team will be seeded. The #1 seed will play the #4 seed, and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. The victors of these matches will advance to the finals match. The winning team of this match will be declared the ultimate victors of the DataBase Premier League.

"Revealing" sets and teams during matches is becoming more and more of a hot topic as the SPL season wears on, so we are implementing this to the DataBase Premier League as well.

Revealing Teams

This is grounds for immediate unsportsmanlike conduct and ban from tournaments. Posting team pastebins and others of the kind will not be tolerated from here on out. This is your final warning.

Revealing Sets

This is where the gray area starts and where it's hard to actually enforce since I personally don't see it as that large of a problem, but others see it as a huge issue.

There have been many complaints over the course of the past couple weeks of users speculating obscure or gimmicky sets that have been legit possibilities or true to the teams for SPL matches, alerting the other party to scenarios or sets that they may not have considered or been aware, and thus possibly changing their play. In-chat "ghosting" is also not what we want to see in the battles.

Speculating really obscure moves like HP Flying on an Aegislash is not really harmful, nor is speculating standard sets like "incoming Fire Blast" from a Moltres, and will thus not be reprimanded.

However, depending on moderator discretion and the egregiousness of the speculating in question, consistently set revealing/speculating the likes of let's say SD Sceptile in RU or Choice Scarf Excadrill in XY OU (which are like the in between of the above examples), may lead to a unsportsmanlike conduct and infraction, and will most definitely lead to a lock and maybe kick on the simulator.

In essence, police yourselves, and know that this is something to watch what you say in the game chats. Work to get this kind of behavior out of the game chats.

Acceptable reasons for sellback:
1. User is a team cancer (as to be judged by TD team and evidenced by logs)
2. User has quit
3. User has disappeared
4. Inactivity (Defined below)

We are defining inactivity as this: "So low of inactivity that it makes it difficult to complete battles of the battler's accord." This includes largely IRC or chat inactivity, but forum inactivity will carry weight as well. If the battler has low activity but is still able to schedule by themselves and conduct their own battles, that is not grounds for a sellback.

This has been a thing in the past and it hasn't caused any problems thus far, but an issue came up during the liberty vs Heist battle in SPL that needs to be restated:

If a player that is playing on PS has disconnected, DO NOT JOIN THE BATTLE IN THEIR PLACE
DO NOT
DO
NOT
!
DOn't
doN'T

This can lead very very very quickly to an infraction, tournament ban, or forum ban and team disqualification of the match (depending on who exactly joined) as it is very easy to then team reveal to the other team.

This is another reason why playing on DataBase Server is far more preferred so as to protect yourself during disconnects, as we can see who exactly is joining the battle.

If the big JOIN button pops up in your window, DON'T JUST CLICK IT, look to make sure it's not because one of the players disconnected. This is your final and only warning.